Case Number 06272: Small Claims Court

THE HIGH COMMISSIONER

The Charge

He is a man of peace. He is a murderer.

The Case

Rod Taylor (The Time Machine) is Sgt. Scobie Malone, a two-fisted
Australian detective who is ordered by his superior to go to England and arrest
Australian High Commissioner Sir James Quentin (Christopher Plummer, Murder
By Decree) for the murder of his wife 25 years earlier. Although Malone
suspects that the charges are little more than political maneuvering, he agrees
to take on the case. However, the situation is more delicate than Malone
realizes: Sir James is the key mediator in sensitive cold war trade negotiations
and cannot be taken away. Malone agrees to give Sir James the time he needs to
complete his negotiations, even though someone has been leaking information
about the secret meetings, but finds that the real challenge will be keeping the
Australian diplomat alive -- because Sir James has been targeted for
assassination by shadowy parties who desperately want his negotiations to
fail.

Chief agent for those shadowy parties -- revealed early on to be Commies --
is the alluring but duplicitous Madame Cholon (Daliah Lavi, Casino
Royale). The slinky exotic wastes no time getting the hapless Sgt. Malone
into bed, and I suppose I can't blame him, except that I personally could never
envision myself amorously entangled with a woman in a beehive hairdo, regardless
of how otherwise well-proportioned she may be. After they experience what the
French call the "little death," Madame Cholon tries to see to it that
Malone experiences the full-sized one. But her cheap Commie stooges are no match
for the clever tough guy Malone, who manages to escape with little more than a
few bruises due to some quick thinking. By this time, incidentally, the astute
viewer will have recognized Madame Cholon's chief lieutenant as Burt Kwouk,
otherwise known as Inspector Clouseau's fanatical manservant Cato, of the
Pink Panther series. He also had a bit part in Casino Royale.
Coincidence? Eh, probably.

Actually, it's pretty funny that Malone is always getting his butt handed to
him by the bad guys in this movie; Rod Taylor (an ex-prizefighter) always
seems more than capable of taking care of himself. At the same time, it's
almost refreshing to see a hero who can't effortlessly fight off legions of
thugs; remember, this was the heyday of the Bond Thriller. In fact, Malone is a
great, charismatic tough guy, just hard enough for the guys and just charming
enough for the ladies.

The High Commissioner is essentially what happens when great actors
happen to a mediocre script. The story isn't that thrilling, despite a wonderful
premise and some slam-bang fight scenes; one particularly neat assassination
scene recalls Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent, as a killer plans
to use a rigged television camera to dispatch Sir James. But for all that, the
plot is largely disposable, with its vague trade negotiations between unnamed
countries represented by anonymous dignitaries. For all we know, Sir James could
be working for peace and economic cooperation between Mauritania and the
Federated States of Micronesia, which makes the dramatic impact of his crusade
rather underwhelming and keeps you mystified as to why somebody thinks the talks
are serious enough to kill someone over. Not even Sir James himself seems sure
why he's going to all the bother, or what he specifically hopes to
accomplish, except for some vague boilerplate about freeing the world from
hunger and violence and making sure that kids and puppies can play in the
streets or something (all of which are problems that can be solved, it seems, by
holding swank little cocktail parties and afternoon get-togethers for tea). What
could be so bad about that? It casts the bad guys in the light of being bad for
badness' sake, rather than giving them some sort of reasoning, however twisted,
for wanting to stop Sir James cold. Of course, these are Communists were dealing
with; they don't really need a reason to bump off a good guy. After all,
to a political system that killed over a hundred million people just for kicks,
what's one more Aussie peacemaker? Fortunately, the talks are being held in
secret, which means that the scriptwriter is never forced to ante up and deliver
a suitably serious situation to back up all the intrigue.

Much more interesting is the intrigue surrounding the alleged murder of Sir
James's wife, another plot element that is never explained, but to much greater
effect. We know practically from the start that Malone believes that Sir James
is innocent of the charges, but can we be sure of that? Christopher Plummer is
marvelous as the dreamy and idealistic diplomat who may -- or may not -- be a
murderer. Although he's very elegant, there is pure, tempered steel behind Sir
James's clear blue eyes, and it makes you wonder...and that wondering helps
inject an extra degree of tension into the story. Could the assassination
attempts have something to do with the murder, instead of the diplomatic
conference? If Sir James is innocent, then who's guilty? Well, I'm not going to
tell you -- you'll just have to see the movie and find out.

One possible suspect is Sir James's current wife, the beautiful, sensitive
Lady Shelia Quentin (Lilli Palmer, The Amorous Adventures of Moll
Flanders). Lady Quentin loves her husband unconditionally, and Malone's
sudden appearance makes her very nervous. Does she have it in her to commit a
murder? Again, I'm not telling -- but the question of what she is and isn't
capable of doing on behalf of her husband comes up more than once, and in fact
drives the movie toward its explosive conclusion. Equally devoted to Sir James
is his protective and witty secretary, Lisa Pretorius (Swedish quasi-bombshell
Camilla Sparv, of Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round; if you haven't seen it,
go right now and find a copy!), and Clive Revill is in fine form as butler
Joseph. In fact, the stuffy Revill's dry wit contrasted with the working-class
Malone offers some of the movie's best moments. (Side note to Clive Revill:
Don't worry. No amount of editing or fancy computer graphics can make me forget
that you were the Emperor first.)

The disc's audiovisual quality is very fine: The picture is nice and crisp,
and the Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio mix especially deserves mention for
sounding bold enough to pass for stereo. I actually double- and triple-checked
to confirm that it was, in fact, mono -- it's that good. There are, however, no
extras.

The High Commissioner is quite enjoyable, but it's the performances
that really shine here and that make this a movie worth watching, despite the
sometimes weak and uneven script. After deliberation, and taking into account
the fine acting, this court grants the High Commissioner a pardon.